Weekend TV: Downton Abbey

“Never a dull moment here,” exclaimed the Dowager Countess, even if the episode’s pace was as stately as its setting

Downton Abbey

Sunday, ITV1

Faced with many possible models for an early 20th-century newspaper magnate — an impish Canadian, say, or a warmonger keen to convert the nation to brown bread — Julian Fellowes chose last night to introduce to Downton Abbey the dullest press baron to have never lived. Iain Glen’s Sir Richard Carlisle wasn’t even interested in exercising power without responsibility, which would be his prerogative. “My responsibility is to my investors,” he announced.

Sir Richard is a self-made man — and proud of it. We know this because on a walk he tells Lady Mary: “I am not ashamed of being a self-made…